The present invention relates to a vaccine for increasing the immunogenicity of a tumor antigen thus allowing treatment of cancer, as well as a vaccine that increases the immunogenicity of a viral antigen, thus allowing treatment of viral infection, including immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. In particular, the present invention provides a fusion protein comprising a defensin fused to either a tumor antigen or viral antigen which is administered as either a protein or nucleic acid vaccine to elicit an immune response effective in treating cancer or effective in treating or preventing viral infection.

Claim:

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for treating a B cell tumor in a subject, comprising, administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a composition comprising a fusionpolypeptide and a carrier, or a composition comprising a nucleic acid encoding the fusion polypeptide and a carrier, wherein the fusion polypeptide comprises a defensin and a B cell tumor antigen, thereby treating the B cell tumor in the subject.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the defensin is an alpha defensin or a beta defensin.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the defensin is a beta defensin selected from the group consisting of human beta defensin 1 (HBD1) and human beta defensin 2 (HBD2), or wherein the defensin is an alpha defensin selected from the groupconsisting of HNP-1, HNP-2, and HNP-3.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the defensin is an alpha defensin selected from the group consisting of HNP-1, HNP-2, and HNP-3.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the tumor antigen is an antibody produced by the B cell tumor or a fragment thereof, an epitope of the idiotype of the antibody, a malignant B cell antigen receptor, a malignant B cell immunoglobulin idiotype,a variable region of an immunoglobulin, or a complementarity determining region (CDR) of an immunoglobulin.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a composition comprising a nucleic acid encoding the fusion polypeptide.

8. The method of claim 7, comprising administering to the subject a vector comprising the nucleic acid encoding the fusion polypeptide.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the vector is a plasmid vector.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the plasmid comprises the lactose promoter, the tryptophan promoter, a beta-lactamase promoter, a phase lambda promoter or a cytomegalovirus promoter.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the vector is a viral vector.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the B cell tumor is a B cell lymphoma.